Climate change experts consider weather changes

Scientists in Perth are studying various coral and tree species in Western Australia to determine how climate has changed over the past 2,000 years.

The researchers have analysed a number of reefs off WA's coast and various tree species in many areas of the state, including the Murchison-Gascoyne and Pilbara regions.

The director of WA's Biogeochemistry Centre, Pauline Grierson, says the research is the focus of a three-day climate change conference starting in Perth today.

"The type of data that we pull together really helps some of the major climate models become calibrated and more refined, so when they are doing their predictions on what might happen in the future they're validated on more information," she said.

"By understanding this natural cycle of variation and by understanding what's driving that variation, the importance of those in the Australasian region broadly but also more regionally like say here in the south-west versus up in the north-west of WA," she said.